Ultraman Blaze

The sun rises in the east, and the morning light shines obliquely, dispelling the coldness on the earth.

"Giggle-"

The crowing of a rooster woke Xiangyu up from his sleep. He got up in a daze and washed up. He saw Yan Qi's brother standing in the yard, holding a mobile phone and complaining about something.

"Everything was fine yesterday..."

"Why is there no signal so early in the morning?"

"What are you doing?"

Xiangyu looked at it and didn't think there was anything wrong at first, so he didn't care about anything.

After washing up, in the morning, the family sat around the table in the living room to eat breakfast.

"Is our TV broken? It kept showing no signal when I turned it on this morning." The old man seemed to be complaining because he didn't get to watch the morning news as scheduled.

"Maybe a nearby signal tower is under maintenance. It should be restored later." Xiangyu guessed.

"Ah."

"Xiaoqi, after dinner, go see your mother." At this point, the old man's wrinkled eyes half-closed, his expression slightly melancholy.

Yan Qi agreed and said "OK".

After dinner, the two of them took a taxi and drove towards the small hillside at the edge of the town under the old man's gaze.

In the car, the taxi driver reminded: "Do you have cash on you?"

"cash?"

After a slight hesitation, Xiangyu touched his pocket and found that it was cleaner than his face. He asked awkwardly:

"Master, don't we all use online payment now? No one carries cash these days."

Upon hearing this, the taxi driver showed a grudge-like expression on his face and complained: "I don't know what happened to the signal tower last night. All the networks are unusable. I can't even play Honor of Kings..."

"Now all the networks in the town are unusable, which is really troublesome."

The taxi driver's unintentional complaint aroused Xiangyu's vigilance in the back seat. However, this feeling only lasted for a moment and quickly dissipated with the arrival of the taxi.

"..."

"Yan Qi, luckily you brought cash, otherwise we would have to take a pirate car."

Looking at the taxi slowly driving away, Xiangyu breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's a habit. I always liked to carry some cash in my pocket." With a sweet smile, Yan Qi turned and looked at the hillside behind her.

There is a cemetery on the hillside, with rows of pine and cypress trees crisscrossing on both sides of the cemetery. A wide cement road runs through the cemetery, with smaller cement paths extending on both sides leading directly to each cemetery.

Looking down the hill, the whole cemetery was filled with the scent of incense. Some people were going up, and some were coming down, interlaced...

"Why are there so many people in the cemetery today?" Xiangyu said with a little surprise when he saw this scene.

"Next week is the fourteenth of July."

"July 14th?"

Yan Qi nodded and explained: "It is the Chinese Ghost Festival, also known as the Zhongyuan Festival."

Afterwards, the two walked into the cemetery, and Yan Qi explained the origin of Ghost Festival to Xiangyu:

“My grandfather told me this when I was very young.

"In ancient China, seven is the number of Yang, the number of heaven. After the Yang energy between heaven and earth is extinguished, it can be revived after seven days. This is the principle of the operation of heaven and earth and the cycle of the rise and fall of Yin and Yang."

“So there are seven days in a week.”

"Of course, 'seven' also carries a mysterious connotation, for example, there are 'seven stars' in the sky, 'seven emotions' in human feelings, 'seven colors' in color, 'seven notes' in music, 'seven rhythms' in poetry, 'seven orifices' in the human body, and so on."

"'Seven' is also the life cycle of a person. One starts to receive education at the age of seven, enters puberty at the age of fourteen, and fully matures physically at the age of twenty-one."

"..."

"So that's it."

After hearing this, Xiangyu showed admiration on his face and couldn't help but sigh: "Chinese culture is really profound and extensive."

"That is."

Yan Qi pursed her lips slightly and nodded:

"After all, China is a great country with a culture of more than 5,000 years."

...Soon, the two arrived at the cemetery where Yan Qi's mother was.

"arrive."

Looking at her mother's portrait and name on the tombstone, Yan Qi was moved, and her eyes suddenly became much more complicated.

"Mom, I'm here to see you."

Light the incense and candles, burn the paper...the ceremony is almost over.

In front of the cemetery, gray paper ashes fluttered slowly in the breeze. Yan Qi squatted in front of the tomb and looked at her mother's portrait, with a lot of thoughts in her mind, but her eyes were filled with more memories and longing.

Xiangyu could more or less understand Yan Qi's feelings. After all, he had also experienced the pain of losing his parents.

Although this grief has faded with the passage of time, Yan Qi's moved expression at this moment has once again magnified Xiangyu's faded sadness.

Xiangyu's body trembled, and his eyes seemed to be pulled into a time tunnel, recalling the scenes of his childhood -

That summer, the family came to the park for a visit. Three-year-old Xiangyu was sitting on the lawn, playing happily with his parents.

However, when Xiangyu saw this scene, he could no longer remember what his parents looked like, so the images of his parents in the scene were blurry. Only the constantly echoing laughter made his back feel colder.

"Mother, father..."

After a moment, Yan Qi stood up and brought Xiangyu's thoughts back to reality.

His eyes returned to normal, and after paying tribute to Yan Qi's mother, the two left the cemetery and returned home.

After returning home, Yan Qi sat in the yard, staring at the sunset with her eyes wide open, and said to Xiangyu, "Xiangyu, I want to stay at home for a few more days."

"Ah."

The sun sets, after dinner.

Xiangyu opened the communication watch and wanted to call Gu Yihui again, but the communication watch also lost the signal, and the call and message could not be sent at all.

"Strange, how could this happen?"

With a frown on his face, Xiangyu said doubtfully.

The communication watch communicates by directly connecting to TPC's space satellite, so there is no reason to lose the signal.

After many unsuccessful attempts, Xiangyu gave up struggling, turned back to his room and went to sleep.

……

At night, the moon was dark and the wind was strong.

Huhu——

In the middle of the night, a strong wind suddenly blew, hitting people's windows and walls like the howling of ghosts and wolves.

Small hillside——

The pines and cypresses were shaking and swaying. A fist-sized black shadow swept across the cemetery quickly with the force of the strong wind, leaving no tribute behind wherever it passed.

As the number of cemeteries it swept increased, the black shadow grew larger at a speed visible to the naked eye under the moonlight. By the time it had finished sweeping the entire cemetery, the originally fist-sized black shadow had grown to 2 meters tall.

At first glance, it looks like a snail's eyes and body, with nematode-like long tentacles on both sides, and it leaves a pool of liquid wherever it crawls.

hiss--

The sudden sound in the cemetery immediately attracted the attention of the gravekeepers.

"Ok?"

He turned his head to look at the cemetery and asked suspiciously, "What's the noise?"

After saying that, he turned on a high-intensity flashlight and rushed towards the cemetery in the slightly biting wind.

After arriving at the cemetery, the gravekeepers were stunned by the scene before them.

All the tributes that were originally placed in front of the cemetery disappeared inexplicably.

"Eh?"

The gravekeeper widened his eyes, thinking he had made a mistake.

He clearly remembered that before the sun set, these tombs were filled with offerings. Even if several of them worked together, it would take most of the day to collect all the offerings in the cemetery. How come all the offerings disappeared in the blink of an eye!

The tomb keeper shone a flashlight, squatted down and took a closer look, and found that there seemed to be a pool of transparent liquid left on the ground. He reached out to touch it and it felt very sticky and disgusting.

"What is this!"

The gravekeeper showed a look of disgust.

However, just as he was studying it carefully, a disgusting sound suddenly came from behind him, as if something was crawling over the pool of mucus, which made the gravekeeper shudder.

The tomb keeper turned around and saw a giant snail monster over 5 meters long and 2 meters tall appearing behind him.

The next second, the soft front part of the monster suddenly opened its big mouth full of sharp teeth. With a desperate scream from the gravekeeper, the snail monster stretched out its tentacles and quickly swallowed him, leaving only a pool of sticky liquid and a set of clothes...

The wind was howling, and this night was destined to be unpeaceful.